That so much attention and renown has come to a man born 100 years ago, the son of a lightning-rod installer who improved his lot in life by becoming a saloon keeper, tests all the normal powers of comprehension. How could such admiration and distinction be so perpetuated in a fickle world where heroes come and go with the changing of the tides?
The exception in this scenario is in the mere mention of the name Babe Ruth.
There has never been a career that seems more fiction than fact, except all the documention, including testimony of witnesses and numbers in the record book, than that of Ruth.
He coupled ability and personality in near-equal proportions. Ruth was beloved because he was a package of fun and frivolity who never took life or himself too seriously. Education and sophistication -- a word he couldn't spell or understand -- never changed him. In a baseball game, he was able to do things no player, before or since, has even approached.
Stop to consider that the celebration of his birthday posthumously, Ruth turning 100, has evolved into an enormous occasion in his hometown of Baltimore while major newspapers all over the country devote lengthy stories to the event and radio-TV networks offer special tributes. All because of what Ruth represents to America.
The Baltimore Sunpapers produced a commemorative section that has collectors clamoring for copies. His birthplace at 216 Emory St. was restored because of the interest of a former mayor, Thomas D'Alesandro III, who listened to the pleas of Paul Welsh, a former reporter for The Sun, or else it would have been bulldozed into obscurity.
As it is now, the old Ruth address is not only a baseball shrine but a registered national historical landmark. The Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum has just been renovated and updated by financial grants, materials and services from 49 individuals and companies, including The Ryland Group Inc., which made an enormous contribution to the success of the revamping effort.
For the centennial gala, blowing out the candles on the 100th birthday cake, two of Ruth's grand-daughters were to be given the honor. More than 30 relatives of Ruth, counting nieces and nephews, have come to Baltimore for the ceremonies and gathering at his old house today.
Later today, the ground-breaking for the eventual erection of a statue of Ruth was to be held at Oriole Park. It was earlier planned to put the bronzed Ruth creation, as sculptured by Susan Luery, at a plaza-like area on Russell Street, but that has been changed and it will be placed, more appropriately, at the ballpark.
